Here From the Beginning
by Ash-Boss
Summary: Christmas fic. Marinette is stuck in the dorms for Christmas break, but so is a certain blonde.


It was _that_ time of year. Finals began to rear their ugly, torturous heads, and the city sparkled under freshly fallen snow. Most of the dorm mates were already packed for the winter holiday, ready to see their family and friends, but a few were staying behind. Including Marinette.

The University was far enough from Paris to live in a dorm, but close enough to her house that she could visit her parents on the weekends. This year, however, her parents decided it was time to take a trip to China to see distant relatives. Marinette was okay with that, regardless of the faces her parents made when giving her the news last weekend. Actually, she was more than okay. One of the few people staying in the dorms as well was one extremely handsome and charming Adrien Agreste.

"So?" Alya's voice prodded over the phone. "What's the plan, lover girl?"

"Plan?" Marinette asked as she watched the snow fall outside her window. The room was quieter without the constant noise from her roommate "What plan?"

She could hear some laughter in the background. Her friend must've been at some journalism work party. Guess she had called at the wrong time. Alya sighed.

"Girl, the tell-Adrien-your-feelings plan! Surely, there are others there that are head-over-heels for him as well. If you keep avoiding it, he's going to get a girlfriend that's _not_ you." Alya was right. Alya was _always_ right. Although Marinette didn't have to worry about Chloe anymore, there were plenty of girls who kept close to him and gave her the stink eye. There were even times where Marinette would find gum in her hair or her dorm keys missing and she'd have to wait for her roommate's classes to finish before she could even get inside. All her money was on Adrien's throng of fangirls. "Besides, Christmas is the best time to get the romance going. It's not like you guys don't give each other _the look_ all the time."

"He doesn't give me any _look_ , Alya." Marinette sighed. "We're just... friends..." And they were. She had eventually became less of a stutter machine before they graduated high school, and now that they were both in the same university, with no one else they knew but themselves, the two had become close. Too bad Alya couldn't see that. All her friend knew was what Marinette could tell her, but somehow that didn't seem like much over the phone.

"Just friends my _butt_ ," the intern laughed. "Last time Nino and I visited, Adrien wouldn't leave your side, and he, in fact, gave you _the look_ when that guy kept talking to you about whatever."

"Homework; it was just homework help."

"Yeah, okay."

"Speaking of," Marinette breathed, ready to switch the topic. "How are you and Nino?"

"We're doing great." Marinette heard the smile in her best friend's voice. "He's a DJ at one of Paris' biggest clubs, which he's obviously happy about, and it pays the rent. I just need to become a journalist already so I can actually do my share of paying for things."

"Isn't he just a keeper," Marinette giggled. "So when is the wedding? How many children should we be expecting?"

Alya made some sort of strangled noise that Marinette giggled at until her friend cleared her throat. "Well at least Nino and I didn't stay quiet about our feelings."

"I'll figure it all out, Alya. Okay?" She sighed. "We have Christmas decorating for our dorms today and the RA partnered us together so... _Something's_ bound to happen."

"Sure, sure. Tell him Nino and I said hi, alright?"

Saying goodbye and wishing her friend a Merry Christmas, Marinette hung up and wrapped her scarf around her neck. Jessica, their resident advisor, decided all students staying for Christmas break should decorate the place and do holiday stuff together. Everyone was grouped in twos or threes, and her and Adrien received the task of gathering Christmas decorations.

 _"Although this is a fashion academy, let's go with tacky."_ Jessica said the day before. _"Adrien and Marinette are one group; Dennis and Margaret are another group. Whoever doesn't find the tackiest decorations has to... wear the elf costumes to the school's fashion show in February!"_

Honestly, Marinette didn't know what to do with Jessica. She could be fun at times, but other times, the redhead gave her a knowing look before… well, doing things like pairing her up with Adrien for this decorating thing. Sometimes her levels of pushing Marinette to confess were more terrifying than Alya's.

Marinette shuddered just as her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she wondered what her best friend had forgotten to say before she saw the caller ID: _Adrien Agreste_.

"H-hello," she answered. _Urgh,_ she was hopeless. She thought that even though her heart had always stuttered for her crush that she would get over the physical mess that was her mouth. Curse her nerves.

"Hey." Adrien responded. She could practically hear him smile. "Are you ready for some Christmas shopping?"

"Yeah. I'm heading out right now." Marinette said as she pushed her feet through some thick snow boots and glanced around for her purse. If only she had someone to help her look. "Where do you want to meet?"

Before she could get a reply, a knock at her door stopped her in her search. She looked at the entryway with a raised brow before opening the door hesitantly. Her eyes were met with a rather odd antler adorned face and a beady stare that returned her mild confusion. She looked up into green, vibrant eyes, lit with a smile. Adrien _would_ be the one to wear such a monstrosity of a sweater.

"Here's alright, I hope." he said sheepishly. A hat covered most of his hair, his bangs swept around the band. Marinette fought the urge to pull it down and kiss him right there and then. Instead, she looked down at the winter coat in his hands. "I mean, I had to come back to the dorms anyway."

"Oh, okay." She spotted her purse on the counter and snagged it quickly. "Should we be on our way, then?"

"Sure." Adrien smiled.

...

They took the train downtown where the snow shined brightly under the sun, and crowds of people gathered around at the Christmas market stalls. Marinette watched Adrien gaze at the scene, his smile brighter than usual. She could feel his excitement in the way his eyes shined and squinted upwards. His knee bounced across from her and brushed against her legging-covered one, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Excited?" Marinette asked, smiling at the slight blush dusting his nose. So _cute._ His leg stopped moving and he sat straighter so he was no longer in her personal space.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she smiled, but answered quicker than she wanted to. Her knee bumped into his as the train began to brake. "I-it's good to see you're enjoying yourself."

Marinette's body surged forward from the sudden brakes, but she was thrown back into her seat when the train stilled completely. She waited for the rush of people to leave before standing until Adrien stood and offered his hand for her to take. With a burning face, she placed her hand in his, rising to her feet and following him out of the bustling train.

Adrien didn't let go right away. When they stepped outside, their shoes hitting wet cobblestone, the world around them burst with all that was bright and cheery. Cheerier than what they could see from the train window. The blonde's excitement rose and Marinette could physically feel it. He was crushing her hand.

"A-Adrien!" She squeaked. It was a bittersweet moment when he realized what he was doing and let go of her hand with apologies streaming out of his mouth in a mess of stutters.

"Ah- I'm _really_ really sorry," Adrien continued, watching her unharmed hand massage the other. "I don't- I was, um…"

"It's okay," Marinette squeaked. "I wasn't expecting it so you just… it's fine."

She watched the way his eyebrows sunk and his eyes lingered on her hand for a moment more before he looked away with a glowing face, and Marinette had a feeling that the cold was not to blame. His nose buried into his scarf - _the scarf her hands had crafted_ \- and Marinette wondered if he ever planned to buy a new one that would be a better fit for his older self... It must've meant a lot to him that his dad had 'bought him it'.

She smiled though, a giggle stuck in her throat as she watched an embarrassed Adrien bury farther into the bundle of cloth. He was _way_ too cute for his own good.

"Do we want to start over there?" He mumbled with his finger pointed over at one of the stalls. An old woman was playing with some of the ornaments in her stall as people passed by without a glance in her direction. Marinette smiled sadly at the lonely soul and nodded.

"Sure, let's see what we can find. Maybe we'll get lucky."

In the end, Adrien walked away with a cross-eyed pigeon ornament that had a little red santa hat and ridiculous heels on its clawed feet. He beamed at the handmade craft but Marinette couldn't understand why. Honestly, it didn't look like a pigeon at all, just a bunch of clay mushed together. Although, it did remind her of the time her and Chat Noir had fought against Monsieur Pigeon…

Adrien couldn't be smiling about that, surely. There was no way he could have been Chat Noir… Marinette had thought about it once, but it didn't seem to match. Her blonde classmate _was_ trapped in one of akumatized-Mylene's barriers when they were in high school. That alone should be enough to knock him off the list of possibly being Chat Noir. However, she couldn't help but _want_ him to be Chat Noir.

If Adrien had been the person under the mask, that would mean that he returned her feelings - at least at some point he had - even if he wasn't _exactly_ aware that she was his Ladybug. It would also explain the similarities she saw between the two as she and the model grew closer. Like the way Adrien's eyes would glow as the sun set over campus, or that smug grin that came out after he teased her - _the grin_.

It would also mean that she had found her partner in crime after over a year of searching... Marinette understood why she never saw Chat Noir again. Right after defeating HawkMoth in her last year of highschool, the next day, Tikki had said her goodbyes. It was sudden, but the kwami didn't have a choice in the matter. She had vanished right in front of Marinette's eyes, telling her she wasn't needed anymore, that her job was done until another group of people possessed them. Marinette had only assumed that the same happened between Chat Noir and his kwami...

Marinette quickly rubbed her hands against her cheeks, erasing any thoughts of Chat Noir from her mind. That alley cat wouldn't ruin her time with Adrien today. She had searched for Chat afterwards, but how was she supposed to find someone if she didn't even have a name or place to go by?

"Marinette?"

Her head shot up to find Adrien waving a hand in front of her. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah," she blushed. "I was just... concentrating?"

Adrien chuckled. "I know you get pretty clumsy, but do you really have to concentrate just to stay on your feet?"

"Don't tease me, Adrien. Slipping on this," she pressed the toe of her boot on the cobblestone for emphasis, "could be very dangerous."

The blonde only shook his head, a grin plastered to his face. "I was just kidding. I always thought luck was on your side. But you're right. Maybe you should hold onto my arm for support. Don't want to lose you in the crowd while you're concentrating, right?"

Marinette huffed, her face still burning. There he went teasing her again with that stupid grin and glowing eyes. She pouted as she clung on to his sleeve, wrapping her hand around his elbow. "You're incredible."

He didn't answer, only guided them through the crowd. Marinette enjoyed the warmth radiating from his side, but even more so the not-so-uncomfortable heat she felt on her fingers from his own hand. Marinette noticed his would twitch over hers when he saw something that intrigued him, and a second later, he pointed it out to her.

"That's pretty cool," he gestured towards another ornament, this one a crystal ball with a clay Eiffel Tower in a snowy city. Adrien drew closer to it until his fingers could tip it. As it swung from its post, white flakes flew over the miniature land.

"It's pretty," she stared in awe before something glimmered in the corner of her eye. She stilled, not sure how to react at first, but relaxed soon afterward at the silly items. A giggle escaped her lips, and she pointed at them for Adrien to see. "Look."

Green eyes moved from the crystal ornament to the two blobs on the counter, one red spotted with black spots and the other black with a yellow top. "Is that...?"

"Ladybug and Chat Noir I think." She picked up Chat Noir and examined the work closer, tracing the details of its tiny kitty ears with her finger. Adrien looked back and forth between her and the figure. "They forgot his tail."

How she was holding, almost _caressing,_ the little blob clone of him - or what once was him - and eyeing it with some sort of fondness sent a shiver up Adrien's spine. Marinette made sure to be careful with the object, studying every angle and applying light touches on certain details only he should know about.

"Oh, they have his baton." He looked over her shoulder as she continued. "They forgot his ring though..."

Clearing his throat, he fought to ask her the one question he'd wanted to ask her for years now. "His... ring?" Adrien's thumb swept over the back of his bare, right ring-finger.

"Ah," Marinette paused; she seemed stuck on how to reply like she was caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar but didn't want to admit it in case her parents didn't see the sweet in her hand. "Um... He had this ring on his left hand. I had to help him during a mission once and just noticed it..."

Adrien hummed before picking up the Ladybug ornament. "This one is pretty good. Her eyes are a little too bright though."

Marinette glanced over as he continued. "I mean her eyes _are_ bright, but they are kind of like the ocean. Sometimes they're bright with the sun reflecting off them, and the other times they look like a storm."

"You..." Marinette whispered. "Do you know Ladybug?"

Adrien frowned. "No. I ran into her once or twice. I liked to believe we were close..."

The two were silent for a moment, looking at the ornaments and silently thinking about their years as a superhero.

"Should we get these?" Adrien asked. Marinette looked between him and the Chat Noir ornament. She figured this was her only connection with him now.

"Yeah, sure," Marinette smiled. The lady behind the counter who had been quiet all this time gasped and smiled widely. She gave them the total with such a happy face, Marinette thought about buying more of her stuff just so she could have the best Christmas.

They continued their search for decorations while eating crepes and drinking Glühwein. Although, Marinette wished she could stay forever in this setting with her classmate, friend, _love of her life,_ … once she started sniffling, Adrien insisted they return to the dorms.

They took the train with smiles masking their sore legs and cold eyelids. When they made it to the dorms, Dennis and Margaret were already there with taunting looks aimed at them.

"It took you guys that long to find something?" Dennis teased. "Must've had a hard time finding anything tacky, I assume."

"Actually," Adrien beamed, "we found our decorations so fast that we took our time walking around the Christmas market." Marinette quickly realized just how competitive the two could get within their first semester there.

Jessica winked at Marinette which she brushed off. Without a care, the redhead swung her hair over her shoulder before walking closer to them. "Alright. Let's see what you brought."

The two guys spread the ornaments across the floor, and Marinette cringed at the other team's decor. If tacky meant _gross_ then she had to hand over the title of winner without hesitation. She groaned. "Is that a fetus?"

"There's also Adam and Eve apparently," Jessica cringed as she pinched a naked plush couple with too many details stitched onto it.

Adrien picked another ornament up, a sour look on his face. Marinette thought he was going to cry right there and then. "What happened to Mr. Potatohead?"

"Hey," Dennis shrugged. "They're tacky, right?"

Margaret beside him kept her eyes glued to her phone, and Marinette wondered if she had let Dennis pick these out, or if she had no clue what her partner had bought.

"These are horrendous!" Jessica finally shrieked. "These are _not_ going up on our tree!"

"But you said you wanted tacky!"

"Tacky, not _crappy_!" Jessica flung a manure ornament in his face before looking at Adrien and Marinette's, declaring them the winner almost immediately. Normally, Marinette might have celebrated, jumping up and down with giggles. However, she didn't feel like a winner with the way her face cringed and the urge to break something crawled up her spine. Dennis' ornaments were honestly the worst.

After sharing a sarcastic high five with Adrien, everyone went to their dorm rooms to get ready for the night. Marinette took this as her chance to change out of her snowy wet clothes. She shook her head, letting any ice fall off her hair, and threw her jacket and scarf on her bed. When something clinked, she snapped her eyes back to her coat. She hurriedly patted her coat's pockets before pulling out the ornament she had bought on her own today: the blobby figure of Chat Noir. She fell onto her bed with sudden realization.

 _His bell_ , she thought as her eyes fell on the clay neck, not a jingle to be heard when she shook it. _They also forgot his bell_ … Eyes half-lidded, she brought the item to her face, looking into beady eyes and waiting for them to squint the way they did when he smiled towards her. She held her breath as she waited for a silly pun or flirtatious remark... Nothing.

Yellow clay _thunked_ against her forehead as she brought his "forehead" to hers.

"Where are you?" She let the words escape her lips. Nothing but the _bing_ of her phone answered her. Sighing, Marinette sat up and looked down at her phone, a message popping onto the screen.

 _Hey_

 _I know that the party isn't for awhile_

 _But Jessica wanted us to come back down and decorate the tree and lobby._

 _You up for it?_

Leave it to Adrien to cheer her up without knowing or trying to do so. She quickly typed back.

 _I'll be right down_

 _Gimme one sec_

She needed to move on. It shouldn't be that hard, but without realizing it, Chat Noir had stolen part of her heart with his silent goodbye. The first month was the worst. Every day after she lost Tikki, she stayed up and waited to see if she could find a shadow over Paris, watched any of the news just to hear about the disappearance of both heroes, and even decided to give Alya a hand with her Ladyblog. And every night she went to bed without the comfort of her small friend and with no news of her partner's whereabouts.

Everyone noticed how torn she was. Her parents gave her long hugs with worried glances as she dragged herself to school. Chloe didn't bug her as much, many of the other students decided to keep a distance, and Alya tried to cheer her up however she could. It didn't help that a certain blonde who could have distracted her mind disappeared for a week. She didn't have any care though if she were honest. She didn't have time to think about anything else. Eventually, she healed. She had to if not for everyone else. Alya clinged to her, thankful to have her friend back, and they became an inseparable foursome with Nino and Adrien.

Marinette hopped off her bed with newfound energy. It was Christmas time! She needed to have fun and get merry, not sulk around on the past. With one last weary glance at the clay model, she placed it gently on her windowsill and left.

Time went by quickly as she surrounded herself with her dorm mates, giggles and smiles shared excessively. A few of them were nailing the lobby with lights while the rest of them hooked the tacky (but cute) ornaments onto the tree. With a silly mime looped around her finger, Marinette reached for a higher branch of the tree to place it. She had already filled the bottom half of the tree with ornaments so putting anything higher was difficult for her. So with determination to finish the tree, she leaned against it and jumped. The mime swung wildly on the branch afterwards, but suddenly, green was all she could see.

"Oomph!" The air left her lungs. The tree laid against her, the soft carpet under her hardly cushioning her fall. Just as quickly as it had fallen, it was raised back to a standing position. Everyone crowded around her.

"Marinette!" Adrien squeaked. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Should I get you something?"

His hands wrapped around her arms and pulled her up to her feet dizzyingly quick. "Oh! You're bleeding! I'm so so sorry."

She pushed her hand against his chest and shook her head. "I'm fine, just a little disorientated. What happened?"

"Dork here," a student poked their thumb towards Adrien, "was trying to put the star up. The tree moved a little so he pushed it and whoala~"

Jessica suddenly rushed to Marinette's side, threw a package of peas into her hands, and started wiping Marinette's forehead with a cloth. "It doesn't look too bad."

"What?"

"You've just got," Jessica paused as she pressed a bandaid on the side of her head, "a little cut. It's nothing to worry about. Just sit down for a bit and ice it."

Marinette simply nodded, not sure if she had any other choice in the matter, walking towards a chair a few feet away from the tree. Adrien's hand slid down her arm with another apology on his tongue before she shook her head at him. "I'm okay, silly. Don't worry about me."

He watched as she settled in the chair before hesitantly going back to the other students. A few pieces of ornaments were scattered on the floor where the tree had fallen, and Adrien picked up the sharp pieces with tender care.

Wow, how embarrassing it was that he pushed the tree onto Marinette. Heat spread from his cheeks to his ears as he kept thinking about it. He was truly unlucky, bad luck kwami or not. Plagg's disappearance did nothing but leave the blonde alone in his empty house, and that made a world of difference by itself.

He had spent that day searching for his kwami _everywhere_. It wasn't until day two that Adrien found the note hidden in the flap of his pillow cover. Everything had hit him like a ton of bricks. He called Natalie every morning to let her know he wasn't feeling well before spending the rest of his day buried under his covers. After a week, he finally gained the strength to leave the house and go to school. However, he couldn't pay much attention.

"Earth to Adrien." Jessica cracked a smile and began flicking his arm until he reacted.

He noticed how he had slowed his actions at the memories that had come to him and quickly swept the pieces into a bag, trying to regain his posture. "Yeah? What is it?"

Something glinted in her eyes, making Adrien gulp. Jessica had a way of creeping the crap out of him. She threw a box into his arms, stacking a hammer and pack of nails on top of it. "Can you put the mistletoe up? Just scatter them about wherever you can."

"Uh, Sure." Did he have any other choice? Jessica was a force he didn't want to mess with. Glancing over once more to Marinette, he walked towards the first doorway he found. His mind wandered back to the past, remembering a time when he was surrounded by his friends.

He had to thank Nino for bringing him out of his post-kwami stupor. Without his friend, Adrien would probably still be at home sulking and watching his life fly by. From what Alya had told Nino, Marinette hadn't been faring well either. He guessed that's when he and Marinette had grown closer. They shared a few moments where their respective best friends would just talk and talk and talk, and he would look over towards Marinette with a knowing smile that she was hurting just as he was.

At first, Adrien didn't understand how Marinette could possibly be just as sad as he was. He had lost two of the closest friends he'd ever had, the freedom to be himself, and the ability to feel what falling in love every day _really_ felt like... unless Ladybug was under his nose all this time. There was a moment - actually quite a few - when he thought about Marinette's sorrow. Alya knew nothing about it, and neither did her parents. It took them longer to make her smile than it did for him. He questioned if maybe, just maybe, she had possibly lost just as much as he - if she had been his Ladybug and lost her kwami, lost her Chat Noir.

Over the years, they healed together and little things began to add up. The way she would stand up to Chloe, and the moments he would talk to her and her eyes would shine in the sun. A few times he even caught her looking at the rooftops with some sort of longing. Marinette also had a way of picking him up when he was down with a calm and sure demeanor. He would catch himself staring at the ceiling at night, thinking of cute little freckles and a smile that made him feel like the ground was wiped out from under him. She had to be Ladybug...

Marinette sat in a daze, not knowing how much time had passed. When Jessica strolled purposefully towards her, though, she realized how dark it had gotten outside and that the bag of frozen peas were no longer frozen, drops of water racing down her arm and dripping off her elbow onto her thigh.

Jessica took the bag off of Marinette's forehead. "How are you feeling?"

Marinette smiled softly at her RA's worried face, "I'm fine. Sorry. I kind of spaced out. Everything's probably done by now."

Jessica's lip twitched.

"Well, I think Adrien is still putting up some stuff in the doorways if you want to help. And you know," Jessica grabbed at Marinette's elbow, wiping the extra water off, "That boy is as tall as a evergreen tree, you know what they say about men as tall as trees Marinette?"

Marinette shook her head, fearing the worse from her not-so-subtle RA.

Jessica giggled, "Their full of sap!" Marinette scoffed, pulling her elbow back. _She's almost as bad as Adrien with those puns._

The redhead pointed her in the direction Adrien was last seen. Down the hallway she walked and there he was, a spring of something green hanging out of his mouth as he hammered a nail above the door. She giggled at the concentration on his face and the way he hovered over the nail a bit longer than necessary before hitting it.

"I know you get pretty clumsy, but do you really have to concentrate so hard on a nail?" She teased.

After giving the nail one last hit, Adrien took the mistletoe branch from his mouth and began tying it, smiling at her comment.

"Don't tease me, Marinette. Nails can be _very_ dangerous." He moved back from the doorway to view his work.

"Well maybe I can help? Jessica said you still had a few."

He crouched down and opened the box on the ground, pulling out a single clump of mistletoe. "Just have this one left, actually."

"Well, I can put it up," she took the decor from him and began walking farther down the hallway. "Where's this one going?"

He blinked at her a few times before _that grin_ spread across his face. Marinette faltered in her stride, but Adrien guided her to their last destination at the back of the dorms. When they got there, though, she realized just what he might've been smirking at.

"Well, go on then." Adrien taunted. "Hang it up."

Leaning her head back, she noticed that the last doorway was the arch that led to the lobby staircase, a _very high arch._ She sent him her best glare before reaching as high as she could. Balancing on her tiptoes, her face flushed in frustration. "...I can't reach."

He gasped with exaggeration behind her. "What? Oh, I am shocked."

Her hands fell to her sides and she looked back at him with a pout. The way those little freckles on her nose bunched up over her flushed skin made his mouth go dry. "Help me up."

He swallowed and cleared his throat before moving behind her and hooking his arms around her waist. "O-okay. Here we go."

With little effort, he pulled her up. She squeaked as his arms squeezed her waist and her feet dangled a few feet above the ground. "Can you reach it now?"

His breath ghosted over her shoulder, his mouth inches from the base of her neck, tickling the tag of her shirt. A shiver ran down her spine.

"Y-yeah," she whispered as she reached up and started hammering at the wall. It was deadly silent as she tied the tiny sprig to the nail, leaning back a bit to see the small white berries glimmer in the dim hall lighting. Her fingers lingered for a second longer before she reached down to her waist and tapped one of his hands. "It's up."

She slid down his chest awkwardly slow as his grasp around her loosened. With a thud, her feet hit the ground, and she quickly pulled down her sweater that had ridden up along the way. "D-does it look good?"

A few seconds ticked by before she turned around, her cheeks not burning as much as before. She watched as he stammered and made sure to avoid any eye contact with her. "Y-yeah, it looks good."

An awkward silence fell between them for a good minute before Marinette turned fully towards him. However, he continued to look up at the mistletoe.

"Well," she hummed, "I guess my job here is done."

Her feet turned to leave, but a hand grasped hers, keeping her in place. She gasped before Adrien's mouth pressed down on hers. Although his movement seemed rushed, he was tender and almost hesitant. His hands pressed lightly against her cheeks, his thumb circling against her skin as he pressed farther into the kiss.

Marinette could hear nothing but her heart racing against her ears. All she could register was white noise. Was Adrien really kissing her? She had to be dreaming in that chair right now. Maybe she hit her head a little too hard. However, she wasn't going to let dream-Adrien slip through her fingers. He felt too real.

He was like gravity in the way she felt herself grow closer to him, and the cologne he wore was strong as she took a deep breath through her nose, trying to get some form of oxygen to her lungs. Her knees felt weak. To keep herself up, she slid her her arms up and around his shoulders, pulling with all her weight at the back of his sweater, bringing his face even closer to hers. His hands were hot on the small of her back, one gliding across her shoulder blades and cupping the back of her neck, the other wrapping firmly around her waist holding her up and catching her in mid swoon.

Dream Adrien didn't usually kiss her like _this._

And as quickly as it had started, it ended. Adrien pressed his forehead against hers, voice coming out deeper in a broken whisper. "You're supposed to kiss if you're caught under the mistletoe... My Lady."

She froze, pulling back to see more of him, and her bottom lip trembled. Adrien's eyes glowed and he smirked in a hauntingly familiar way, but softer, and he lacked the teasing tone in his voice. Her hand came up to hover in front of his face, and his eyes slipped closed. She removed his hat and brushed her fingers through his hair a couple times until his hair fell into the dip of his nose, similar to the way Paris' superhero once wore it. she sucked in another cologne filled breath. "Chat?

He nodded, his hand coming to rest on hers still in his hair. She shook her head in disbelief as she choked down a sob.

"Chat," she placed a hand over his bringing it between their faces and she rubbed a ring-less finger, as Adrien's other hand moved from her waist up to her jaw, smoothing a line into her lower lip with his thumb. The tip of his forefinger prodded gently at her earlobe, taking notice of a lack of jewelry. She looked over every inch of his face as if it was the first she's seen him in years. In a way, it had been.

Adrien tilted his head and rubbed his nose against hers. "My lady, I found you. I found _you."_


End file.
